I’m hiring a COO.

This is an impossible job. And you need to make it look easy. As internal CEO, you have unlimited responsibility: I will hold you accountable for all partners, all agents, all clients, all teams, all systems, all tech, all money, all schedules, all execution. You’ll directly manage every team leader and make sure all OKRs are hit. You’ll de-risk all project timelines, surface and solve problems, identify and correct blindspots, and set company principles and policies. You’ll uphold the vision, strategy and culture that I set forth; and make sure the spirit of that intent is followed on a day-to-day basis, down to the last detail. If the results are bad, it’s your fault. If the results are good, it’s your fault.

I’m looking for someone with more experience than me: someone who has taken a company from 100 people to 1000 or more; who knows how to build for scale. I want someone whose presence, experience and abilities instantly command respect; a natural gravitas. I want a manager who has never seen an operations problem that can’t be solved. I want an executive who, after reviewing our model, understanding our strategy and vision, and meeting our team, just believes and sees it as merely a matter of execution to take us from where we are to where we want to be. I want a coach who can actively develop their direct reports and level-up the entire organization. And most of all, I want a leader who embodies our values: passion, perseverance, relentlessness, creativity, organization, nobility, beauty, truth.

I need a partner who is the yang to my yin. A brother from another mother. The “brother” part is the shared values, commitment, vision and strategic thinking; the mutual admiration, respect and trust that grants autonomy in our own domains. The “another mother” part is the divergence of strengths: I’m good at vision, strategy, culture, fundraising, marketing, sales, hiring and business development, I’m a conceptual thinker and abstract problem-solver; I need someone who is detail-oriented, a practical thinker and grounded problem-solver, a manager, coach, system-builder, dashboard-builder, tactician, analyst and obsessive project manager. My charisma, your gravitas. There are 10,000 moving parts in the company; I need someone who can be attuned to all of them, without getting sucked into the details, always maintaining a clear sense of “the big picture”, fluidly moving between levels of analysis and layers of the organization. I need someone who can anticipate the next crisis before it happens, who can “see around corners.” When I make a promise, I need someone who can guarantee that it gets done. When I ask for something to get done, I need someone who I can trust to always get it done on time, and as intended. If I’m going on the offensive, I need someone to play defense. I need to know that my supply chain is always secure and never over-extended, so I can confidently go into hyper-aggressive BD mode.

What I don’t need is a boss. I’m the boss. I don’t fall in line, you do. We will debate many decisions, but ultimately, you align. I will hold you accountable and I will challenge you. You may do the same, to some degree, but this will flow less up, than down. That is an important, subtle line that must be sacred. But as long as that relationship is clear, you have the signet ring: you are the grand vizier, the eminence grise. Do as you see fit, and you’ll have my sign off on most major decisions by default. I need my Tim Cook, not my John Sculley.

I expect you to have your own network, and to contribute meaningfully to closing investors, clients and talent. I expect you to rock in board meetings, in investor pitches, and in front of a camera. But these are my domains, so I’ll carry most of the weight. Similarly, I have and can and will contribute meaningfully to all internal issues and problem-solving, but I expect you to hold the responsibility and carry them without me if necessary.

When you say “yes”, it will create a shockwave felt far and wide. And it shall be a sign and a portent of Invisible’s ultimate success.

What am I prepared to do to for this person? I echo the promise of kings in fairy tales, to daring knights who dare to slay the dragon:

Ask of me what you will, if it is in my power, so shall it be done: I shall grant you even up to half my lands, and my fair daughter’s hand in marriage.

BOUNTY
Introduce me to this person and I will pay you $10,000 if they survive 90 days into the job. **(Edit: In the original post, I promised $1M on IPO if the COO was still with the company. Lawyers tell me I don’t have a mechanism to make good on that. Instead, I’m going to work with my lawyers to get the successful referrer advisory shares that match my original intent. Lawyers. Sigh.)

TO APPLY
Do your homework first:
— inv.tech
— inv.tech/reports
— inv.tech/summary
— inv.tech/hiring
— inv.tech/partners
— medium.com/invisible-problems
— the model
— partner pay model

Then email me at francis@invisible.email with a cover letter explaining why 1) you are the chosen one, and 2) why you are insane and romantic enough to join us on this journey, and 3) what you expect to accomplish in your first 100 days.